FEATURED BOOKS

Before we can truly love one another, we must first discover how radically, passionately and perfectly we are loved by God.

REJUVENATE, REVITALIZE, REKINDLE AND RECONNECT

This insightful and enriching 10-chapter study, designed just for couples, offers you and your spouse a safe place to acknowledge chronic illness and its impact on your marriage, as you grieve, heal, and begin to thrive again together.

Reflecting on over forty years of matrimony, John Piper exalts the biblical meaning of marriage over its emotion, exhorting couples to keep their covenant as a display of Christ’s covenant-keeping love for the church. He aims to lift the church’s low view of marriage to something infinitely greater – a vision of Jesus’s unswerving allegiance to and affection for his bride. This Momentary Marriage unpacks the biblical vision, its unexpected contours, and its weighty implications for married, single, divorced, and remarried alike.

Love at First Fight will give your marriage encouragement and hope if you find that the once endearing, charming, and distinct qualities that attracted you to your spouse are now a source of stress and conflict. In sharing humorous, personal stories from both the male and female perspective, Carey and Dena Dyer will help you discover that a fun, resilient, fulfilling marriage can be realized through hard work, forgiveness, God’s grace, and a sense of humor. Fifty-two conversational meditations begin with Scripture, end with prayers, and include practical action steps to develop a deeper connection with your spouse.

Your marriage is more than a sacred covenant. It is a spiritual discipline designed to help you know God better, trust him more fully, and love him more deeply. What if God’s primary intent for your marriage isn’t to make you happy . . . but holy? With insights from Scripture, church history, time-tested wisdom from Christian classics, and examples from today’s marriages, Sacred Marriage reveals how marriage trains us to love God and others well, how good marriages foster good prayer, how married sex feeds the spiritual life, and more. Whether delightful or difficult, your marriage can become a doorway to a closer walk with God.

When all seems lost, where can hope be found?
Katherine and Jay married right after college and sought adventure in Los Angeles. On April 21, 2008, as their son, James, slept in the other room, Katherine suffered a massive brain stem stroke without warning. Miraculously, Jay came home in time and called for help. Katherine was rushed into surgery, though her chance of survival was slim. Through 40 days on life support and nearly 2 years in full-time brain rehab, Katherine and Jay, struggled to regain a life for Katherine. Eight years later, they are stewarding their story of suffering, restoration, and Christ-centered hope through their ministry Hope Heals.

Filled with insights from a real couple on real issues, Songs in the Key of Solomon will get you and your spouse laughing, thinking, sharing, touching, and praying – possibly all during the same reading. Each offering in this devotional is designed to spark connections around issues that matter, so you’ll deepen your emotional, spiritual, and physical unity and ignite new levels of intimacy. Here is an invitation to hear the music in your marriage – maybe for the first time…or maybe once again.

Recording artist Laura Story’s life took an unexpected turn when her husband, Martin, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The fairy-tale life Laura had dreamed of was no longer possible. Yet in struggling with God about how to live with broken dreams, Laura has found joy and a deeper intimacy with Jesus. She examines the brokenness of some of the heroes of our faith, and shows how despite their flaws and flawed stories, God was able to use them in extraordinary ways, not because of their faith, but because of the faithfulness of their God.

BLOG POSTS

O God of the Broken Beautiful,
You take the most common, ordinary things and transform them
into nourishment for body and soul.
Thank you for feeding us well.
We began with gratitude, Lord,
but we need to also make space for lament today.
Our hearts are broken,
We are people who always hold some kind of pain... #ChronicJoy #DiscoveringHope #prayer READ MORE

We are told that we will all face trials. Jesus told us to expect them. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33 Trials come in all different forms and fashions: health crises,...

“She held his hand like she never wanted to let him go," my husband told me quietly one evening. It'd been a tough day. A co-worker whom my husband deeply respected was losing his battle with cancer. He and his wife had stopped by the office to pick up his things and say...

SHE SAYS It took time for Carey to understand I wasn’t making up the fatigue I felt when we were first married. His family grew up healthy as pack mules—they went to the pharmacist instead of the doctor on the rare occasion one of them felt sick—while my bout with severe...

(excerpts from Love at First Fight: 52 Story-Based Meditations for Married Couples) “Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been...

Yesterday, I shared Celebrating Even in the Struggle: Five Things I'm Learning about Marriage with Chronic Illness. Today, my husband Tony and I want to share a radio interview we did a few weeks ago with Our American Network for their Marriage on the Mind radio show with host Deb Wolniak,...

“When Thomas* and Carina* returned from their honeymoon in 1997, Carina was placed on long-term disability from work due to a string of illnesses – including lupus, fibromyalgia, migraines, arthritis and heart problems….What followed were years of chronic physical pain, sometimes keeping Carina bound to her bed day in and day out. Thomas often cooks, cleans, cares for their two young boys, does the laundry, buys groceries and serves as Carina’s primary caregiver. ‘I had the feeling of helplessness when I realized that her conditions simply wouldn’t go away,’ he recalls.” Focus on the Family Canada

“Despite the distractions, difficulties, and sicknesses there are tangible things that we all can do to get our focus back on our marriage and make it strong and to help it thrive.” Tricia, Abounding in Hope with Lyme

“When we married in 2002, I already had a chronic illness. At that time, I was still able to attend college, and after graduating I was able to work a part-time job for a while. However, less than two years after getting married, my health deteriorated to the point that I became disabled and homebound.”Rachel Lundy